Family quarrels add intrigue to lotto winner death

This June 2012 photo provided by WMAQ-TV in Chicago shows Urooj Khan, center, holding a ceremonial check in Chicago for $1 million as winner of an Illinois instant lottery game. At left, is Khan's wife, Shabana Ansari. Khan, 46, who owned several dry cleaning operations and some real estate, died suddenly on July 20, 2012, just days before he was to collect his winnings. Khan's death has been ruled a homicide. Court records show that Ansari has battled with his siblings over control of his estate, including his $425,000 prize money. A Cook County judge on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, approved the exhumation of Khan's body. (AP Photo/Courtesy of WMAQ-TV in Chicago)
— AP

This June 2012 photo provided by WMAQ-TV in Chicago shows Urooj Khan, center, holding a ceremonial check in Chicago for $1 million as winner of an Illinois instant lottery game. At left, is Khan's wife, Shabana Ansari. Khan, 46, who owned several dry cleaning operations and some real estate, died suddenly on July 20, 2012, just days before he was to collect his winnings. Khan's death has been ruled a homicide. Court records show that Ansari has battled with his siblings over control of his estate, including his $425,000 prize money. A Cook County judge on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, approved the exhumation of Khan's body. (AP Photo/Courtesy of WMAQ-TV in Chicago)
/ AP

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Illinois Lottery shows Urooj Khan, 46, of Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, posing with a winning instant lottery ticket. On Friday, Jan 11, 2013, a Cook County judge granted authorities permission to exhume the body of the Chicago lottery winner who was fatally poisoned with cyanide just as he was about to collect his $425,000 payout. His July 20 death was initially ruled a result of natural causes. (AP Photo/Illinois Lottery, File)— AP

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Illinois Lottery shows Urooj Khan, 46, of Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, posing with a winning instant lottery ticket. On Friday, Jan 11, 2013, a Cook County judge granted authorities permission to exhume the body of the Chicago lottery winner who was fatally poisoned with cyanide just as he was about to collect his $425,000 payout. His July 20 death was initially ruled a result of natural causes. (AP Photo/Illinois Lottery, File)
/ AP

CHICAGO 
In the week since news surfaced that a Chicago man was poisoned to death with cyanide just before he was to collect a lottery payout, surprising details about his convoluted family saga have trickled out daily.

Urooj Khan's widow and siblings fought for months over the businessman's estate, including the lottery check. His father-in-law owed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. His 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage had moved out of her stepmom's home and into his sister's after his death. Then his ex-wife came forward, announcing in anguish that she hadn't seen her daughter in more than a decade and hadn't even known she was still in the U.S.

The slowly emerging family backstory and ever-expanding cast of characters have added layers of intrigue to a baffling case in which authorities have revealed little and everyone is wondering: Who did it?

The victim's relatives hint at family squabbles. And Khan's wife, Shabana Ansari, has endured clutches of reporters outside the family home and business, asking even whether it was a lamb or beef curry dinner she made for Khan on the night he died.

"She's just as curious as anyone else to get to the bottom of what caused her husband's death," said Al-Haroon Husain, who is representing Ansari in the case that will divide up Khan's estate, including the $425,000 in lottery winnings.

Ansari and other relatives have denied any role in his death and expressed a desire to learn the truth.

Authorities remain tightlipped about who they may suspect. In the coming weeks, they plan to exhume the 46-year-old Indian immigrant's body, which might allow investigators to determine exactly how he was poisoned and to gather more evidence for any possible trial.

Khan seemed to be living the American dream. He had come to the U.S. from his home in Hyderabad, India, in 1989, setting up several dry-cleaning businesses and buying into some real-estate investments.

Despite having foresworn gambling after a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2010, Khan bought a ticket in June. He jumped "two feet in the air" and shouted, "I hit a million," he recalled at a lottery ceremony later that month.

He said winning the lottery meant everything to him and that he planned to use his winnings to pay off mortgages, expand his business and donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

He was just days from receiving his winnings when he died before dawn on July 20.

The night before, Khan ate dinner with his wife, daughter and father-in-law in their house in Chicago's North Side neighborhood of West Rogers Park, home to many immigrants from India and Pakistan.

Sometime that night, Khan awoke feeling ill and collapsed as he tried to get up from a chair, his wife has said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

"I was shattered. I can't believe he's no longer with me," a tearful Ansari, 32, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

With no outward sign of trauma, authorities initially determined Khan died of natural causes. But a concerned relative - whose identity remains a mystery - came forward with suspicions and asked authorities to take a closer look.